Waking up the next day, Joanna was ready to meet her creator. No more. She was done. Never in her whole life was she feeling as terrible as on that horrible day, waking up in a camper. Looking around, Joanna realized that it must have been one of the fanciest campers she had ever seen or it was another driver's motorhome. That one seemed more realistic. Trying to sit up, Joanna groaned at the light which was filtering into the room. Narrowing her eyes, Joanna realized that the light was coming from the open door and the soft thing she had been leaning her head on was no other than Roscow.
"Morning there." Smiling at the dog once, Joanna brushed her hand over his head carefully, before turning around. After all these years and the many times she had been in Lewis trailer, she knew that this one was defiantly not his, which left her still with the question of where she was and why on earth nobody else was here.
Westling the mountain of duvets and blankets of her, Joanna thought she had seen her own as well, but she couldn't care for that all too much at the moment. She had to find the rest of the drunk and irresponsible drivers before the media realized what they've done last night.
"Where is your dad, hm?" She asked Roscow, who simply flopped down next to her, before rolling onto his back, so the Austrian would crawl his belly, which she of course did, Joanna was weak for the adorable bulldog after all.
Slowly getting up from the floor, Joanna was about to leave the trailer, but Roscow moved to the closed bathroom door, which caused the Austrian to raise an eyebrow before she moved to open it, only to be met with Toto, which caused Joanna to simply kick his shoes to see if he was still moving, apparently he was.
Allowing Roscow to climb on the Austrian team principal's chest, well Joanna was simply to hangover to stop the bulldog, she kneeled down while trying her best not to vomit on the older Austrian.
Shaking his shoulder, Toto groaned at her, before calling her Susie and telling her to let him sleep some more, which resulted in another loud moan, but not from Joanna nor Toto. Pulling the shower curtain back, Joanna was met with a confused-looking Christian Horner, who was nothing more than a heap on the floor of the shower.
"What the fuck." The Austrian muttered, which caused Toto, who was still more asleep than awake to tell her off for her fool language.
"You know what. I was never here to witness this, okay?" Joanna asked Christian, who only shrugged, before kicking Toto, as good as he could.
"It's not our fault that we're here. Daniel called me in the middle of the night to tell me you guys are at some backyard cockfight where Max dragged you because Jenson wanted to experience something original Belgian."
"A what?!" The younger Austrian asked horrified.
"Not what you think. He means a ... Hahnenkampf." Toto muttered, gesturing around with his hands while searching for the right word, before explaining to Joanna in German what the Brit had meant with his statement. Roosters, not actual well you know.
Slowly sitting up while brushing his hand over his face, Toto looked around, before asking Joanna where exactly they've ended up, which caused the younger Austrian to shrug.
"The last thing I remember is dancing on the counter in that bar and stumbling into Max's arms," Joanna said, which caused Christian to nod. Seemed like he was awake enough now to play the team principal again.
The Brit left the bathroom, while Joanna helped Toto to his feet, before Christian came back, telling them that they were the only ones in the trailer which apparently belong to Fernando, which is why it was so unfamiliar to Joanna.
Leaving the trailer, Joanna walked over to Jenson's before knocking but she didn't find anyone. Neither in Daniel's motorhome or Lewis's, which began to worry the Austrian.
"You would happen to know if someone got arrested last night, right?" Toto asked Christian, seemingly thinking the same thing as Joanna.
The Brit nodded, which he retreated instantly, before leading the others to the paddock. About to pass the fountain in front of the main entrance of the track, Joanna stopped dead in her steps. There were three floaties, a unicorn, a peacock, and a pineapple. Joanna wanted to laugh at the irony that it was Jenson, who was sleeping on the pineapple, sitting up and with his dark sunglasses over his eyes. The dress shirt from last night was gone.
"Is that Mark Webber on a unicorn floatie with Sebastian?" Christian asked a little bit freaked out, which caused Joanna to nod to herself. Her best friend was traped over Mark like a fucking blanket while the Aussie seemed to have lost his shirt as well.
"Who's that on the peacock?" Toto asked absolutely done with the situation, which was incredibly funny to Joanna.
"Looks like Hulk and Kev." Joanna guessed while Jenson's pineapple came dangerously close to the edge of the fountain where the two Austrian's and the Brit were standing. With one swift movement of her hand, Jenson landed in the cold water of the fountain, only to resurface a moment after to curse Joanna, but the Austrian was fast to tell him to suck it up, before ordering him to get the others out of the fountain and meet them at Joanna's trailer. The other three would go and look for the others.
Grumbling to himself, Jenson moved over to Mark and Sebastian, only to gently wake the German and help him get from the floaty on solid ground without getting wet before carelessly throwing Mark into the water.
Sebastian was laying on his back on the meadow next to the fountain while grumbling that Mark should better shut up and not kill Jenson, who he was trying to drown right now. Rolling her eyes, Joanna knew that they wouldn't ever actually hurt each other and they still had to find the others, so she tugged on Toto's sleeve, before walking away.
Christian and Toto shared a look before looking back at Mark, who was standing in the fountain with Jenson in a headlock, before following Joanna fastly. Hearing the Aussie curse and the Brit screeching behind them, Joanna and the two team principals entered the paddock.
Raising an eyebrow Toto lifted a shirt from the ground which looked suspiciously like Jenson's. Sharing a look with the other two, the Austrian team principal of Mercedes followed the trail of breadcrumbs, well clothes, until they've found the end of the last piece of clothing handing in a tree. Looking over the track, Joanna's eyes widened at what she saw. Blindly racing out to Christian next to her, who was crunching at the floor to inspect the clothing, the team principal looked up confused before his look morphed into one of horror while Toto couldn't stop himself from laughing.
"Better take the clothes with you." The older Austrian muttered while Christian run over to his driver. Daniel was sleeping on his belly, completely necked on top of a straw bale. He was always the one who liked to get rid of his clothes while drinking. Their group of friends has learned that the hard way.
Joanna and Toto approached a little bit slower, while Christian woke Daniel and gave him a shirt and some trousers to cover himself. But out of a sudden Christian turned around a shit-eating grin on his own face.
"Hope there are enough clothes for your champ left." He called over to them, which caused Toto to furrow his browns, before moving a little bit to the side. Upon seeing Lewis sleeping as well on his belly but besides a straw bale.
Crouching down next to Lewis, Joanna checked on him while Toto went back to get him something to wear.
"Are you okay?" Joanna asked softly while brushing some straw out of his hair, which caused Lewis to huff, before looking up at Daniel, who let Christian fuss over him. Something Joanna had never seen before, the Brit must have been drunk off his ass for a reaction so tender.
"That fucker rolled me off the straw bale," Lewis muttered, causing Joanna to laughed while Daniel went to defend himself.
"Not my fault. What the fuck did we do last night? I didn't know that Maxy had such friends. Cockfight and all." Lewis looked at Daniel again, before snorting.
"I thought you would be more open-minded. Never saw you as a homophobic."
"He's talking about roosters, Lewis. Dan's as homoerotic as a rainbow." Joanna huffed totally done with the situation and still worried. Where the fuck was Max?
Daniel simply shrugged, while Lewis asked Joanna if she had seen Roscow by any chance. Joanna had allowed the bulldog into Lewis's motorhome after checking if one of her friends was there, which she told Lewis, who visibly relaxed upon knowing that his baby was safe and alright.
"Whatever this is, can we cut it short? I'm still missing a driver." Christian said a little bit uneasy while Lewis got dressed behind a straw bale.
Right at that moment ringed Joanna's phone. Fumbling for it, while pulling a face at the loud noises it was making, Joanna picked up. It was Jenson, who told her that he has found the two missing drivers in Joanna's trailer. Making their way back, took way longer than they've originally thought. They were about to finally enter the area where all the motorhomes were placed for the race, only to find an angry-looking Nico Rosberg and an overjoyed Roscow.
Ignoring the German, Lewis moved to brush his fingers over his dog's head, while Jenson walked up to them, still dripping wet. "How are they?" Daniel wanted to know, which caused Jenson to look apologizingly at Christian.
"I swear it wasn't my idea. I think I wasn't even present in the tattoo studio." Realizing what the Brit was implying Joanna pushed past Jenson and run up to her motorhome, only to almost fall over Fernando, who was sleeping on the steps in from of her trailer. She wondered how she had missed him, but right now other things were more important.
"God no," Joanna muttered, fastly kneeling down next to Max, who was sleeping on his belly on the floor, just like Joanna had done in Fernando's trailer, without a shirt but a little stick figure lion tattoo on his back. She reached out to rub over the ink which thankfully smudged not only Max's skin but also Joanna's fingers.
Letting out a breath in relief, Joanna shared a look with Christian, who seemed equally as happy that his eighteen-year-old driver didn't get a cartoon lion tattooed on his skin on a drunk night out, while someone from Red Bull should have watched over him.
"Max," Joanna called softly, which caused the Dutch to groan. Joanna touching him seemed to have woken the Dutch. He turned around only to smile softly at Joanna. Seemed like the Red Bull driver was still a little bit drunk.
"You're okay?" He asked sleepily, which caused Joanna to exhale slowly, before flopping down beside him. Never again, she thought, while brushing Max's hair back, glad that he wasn't missing any longer.
------------
About thirty minutes later, all the drivers and the two team principals managed to gather on garden furniture in front of the two Ferrari motorhomes. Most of them looked like hell. Kevin was hiding his head under Hulk's t-shirt, who was lying on a deckchair with the Dane, sunglasses in place like always. Lewis was sitting on the floor tightly hugging Roscow and glaring at Nico, in front of Joanna and Max who were sharing a deckchair as well, even though they weren't tangled up in each other.
Thanking Fernando quietly Max accepted the bottle of water the Spaniard was offering him, before giving Joanna and Lewis one as well. Hangover Fernando was a lot nicer than the over one, Joanna decided, while watching him sit down next to Mark on the stairs of Joanna's trailer.
"Were we really at an illegal backyard cockfight?" Sebastian asked as he sat down on the floor in front of Jenson, who put his hand gently around the back of Sebastian's neck, which caused the German to turn a little bit, giving Jenson a gentle smile.
"Yeah, I guess so, all Max's fault." The Brit replied, which caused Max to snort next to Joanna, before settling down to rest his head in Joanna's lap, which caused her to brush her fingers through his hair.
"How's that my fault? I didn't know these people. Daniel started talking with them until they invited us." The Dutch replied, which caused Daniel to smirk to himself.
"Was a good night. Just a shame you chickened out. The little cartoon lion tattoo would have looked adorable on you." Max only lifted his hand to give his teammate the middle finger, which caused the others to laugh.
"Where was I as Daniel tried to make Max get a tattoo?" Joanna asked, which caused Mark to roll his shoulder back to ease the pain, before replying.
"You tried to stop Jenson from climbing into the fountain, while Fernando organized floaties so nobody would drown," Mark explained to the group, before taking a sip from his water. while Jenson looked at Fernando with betrayal in his eyes.
"You put me on the pineapple?" He asked bewildered. "I thought we're friends!"
"Mate, what's the thing with you and pineapples anyways?" Mark replied instead of Fernando, who looked like he was about to throw up any moment now.
"That was meant to stay in Vegas!" Jenson exclaimed while Sebastian snickered.
"Well, the only question which remains is how did I end up necked on a straw bale with Lewis when I was with Max in the first place," Daniel asked while Jenson had flopped down from his chair to sit next to Sebastian, before hiding his face in the German's neck.
"I was with you guys in the studio. Max wanted to find Joanna and we had the stupid idea to sleep necked on straw bales." Lewis said, not looking up from Roscow, who seemed rather content with his dad's attention only on him.
"Did any of you take photos?"Joanna asked after a moment, which caused everybody to check their phones, but nobody apart from Jenson and Daniel seemed to have thought about snapping some photos for memory.
Everybody gathered around Jenson first, who showed them a photo of the backyard cockfight they've visited. The only people who were visible in the first picture were Joanna and Max, who looked absolutely horrified, and Jenson's face. He apparently took a few selfies. The next picture was showed Daniel, who tried to escape an angry rooster. The next foto must have been the two team principals' arrival, due to Daniel, who had clearly climbed into Christian's arms, the rooster behind them.
All the other photos which were taken with Jenson's phone were at the fountain. The first was a picture of Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando, who carried a sleeping Kevin on a peacock floaty into the fountain. The next of Joanna, who had moved towards the fountain to stop a sleeping Sebastian from rolling face-first into the water. The following was Mark, who had climbed onto the same floaty, with a sour expression, Joanna most likely told him to do it, to stop Sebastian from drowning. The last, and funniest of them all was a picture of Jenson, who was laying on a pineapple floaty without a shirt but with an actual pineapple in his arm. For no apparent reason, the pineapple wore Jenson's shirt and sunglasses. Joanna had the sneaking suspicion that one of her friends was having a bit of fun with Jenson.
"Come on." The Brit groaned, causing the other to laugh before Daniel moved to show them his photos. The first was Max, who was holding a half-empty bottle of Gin, while some guy drew the cartoon lion on his back, Daniel's face was in the picture as well, looking defiantly drunk, while Lewis watched what the guy was drawing onto Max's back. The following once were all blurry, before they were outside of the studio again. Daniel and Lewis were laughing while Max watched them unimpressed.
The next one was on the straw bales. Joanna and Max were sitting on one in the background, totally caught up in each other. Christian and Daniel were in focus while the team principal tried to stop Daniel from undressing. Fernando must have taken the picture, due to Lewis and Toto sitting on a straw bale as well, laughing totally to Christian's despair.
"That was fun," Daniel exclaimed in the exact same moment, Jenson tried to sware them all to secrecy, which caused Joanna to smile gently at Jenson, who looked so done with them right now.
At that moment, Joanna felt joy. She loved her friend, they were the family Niki never wanted her to have. They weren't distracting her, they were on her side when it mattered most and that's exactly why she will forgive Daniel. He was her brother from another mother. An annoying idiot but she didn't want to think what her life would be like without him.
Maybe he would tell her what was happening, maybe not. Joanna didn't care, not at that moment. Maybe she had been looking at all of these happenings from the wrong side, maybe Daniel wasn't the bad guy in her story. The friend, brother, suddenly turned his back on her. There was something else. Maybe she was thinking too short-term. Maybe she couldn't see the big picture, but one day she will. The traps were laid out, she just had to wait for which would snap shut first.
31. August 2016
Joanna smiled gently at Toto as she entered his office the next morning in order to speak about her contract. The other Austrian seemed to still nurse his hangover, but he was himself enough to offer Joanna a seat. The Austrian had flown out to Berlin for him, so that was the least he could do.
"How are you doing?" Joanna asked after she thanked the blond girl for showing her to Toto's office.
"I'm fine, but we're here to talk about you," Toto said, with a dismissive wave of the hand. The older Austrian didn't seem in the mood to ever again mention the night in Spa, which only amused Joanna more.
"Ah, yes. I've read the contract you've given me and I would like to make a few changes." The Ferrari driver said, which caused Toto to gesture at her to continue. To be true, he had expected her to want a few changes, she was a Lauda after all and they weren't the easiest people to deal with when money was involved.
"Tell me what you want and I will see what I can do," Toto answered, which caused Joanna to nod before she handed Toto a list of three things. The older Austrian looked over the list once more after exhaling slowly. The younger Austrian knew she was risking a lot, but without these things, she wouldn't work for them.
"You see, the first thing, it's done. Don't even worry about that. We will make sure your PR assistant and performance coach can leave Ferrar with you, the other things are far more difficult."
"I must understand that I insist on these terms." The young Austrian said, which caused Toto to brush his hand over his face worried.
"Can't you ask for more money and a car or something like other drivers would?" He joked, which caused Joanna to smile at him.
"Don't give me ideas. Although we both know that I am worth more than what you've offered me so far."
"I was afraid you were gonna say something like that. As for your list... I'll make the part about your father happen. In fact, it's probably best if Niki has nothing to say when it comes to you."
"But the pregnancy clause, I cannot agree to contract where there is none. It's custom to have one with a female driver. Not even I can change that. The FIA insists on them, no matter how old-school they are." Toto said, getting up to get a folder from behind him, which various versions of pregnancy clauses. The lawyer team from Mercedes has told him that every version was alright and he should just go for the one which fitted best with Joanna, should she bring it up.
"These clauses interfere with the right of free determination and you know it. As does the FIA. They have always been a grey area. I've been in this business way too long to let my team tell me if I can start a family or not." Joanna started to talk while leaning back in her seat.
"But I don't expect you to cross it out completely. I just want you to modify some things. Less involvement from the team and more privacy." Joanna told Toto before she handed him a document. Her own version of a pregnancy clause, which was ridiculous, Joanna knew that, but she needed to poker high. The Mercedes team principal gazed at his soon-to-be driver before reading through the few paragraphs Joanna had made her lawyer put down.
"You surely can imagine that that's not what we aimed for. But I'm sure we can meet on the middle ground. I can understand your wish for more privacy especially after staying at Ferrari for so long." And the middle ground they've found after about eight hours of readying through contract versions, phone calls with Joanna's and the Mercedes lawyer team, and a lot of suggestions and gamblings.
In the end, Toto got his pregnancy clause, of course, Joanna and her lawyer changed this clause as much as they could and got a result that everyone was happy with, naturally, Joanna kept this a secret from Toto, who therefore added another 3 and a half million and a new Mercedes. so all the work wasn't for nothing. Joanna had watched as the lawyer put the clause in about Niki, her PR assistant, and her performance coach, which meant she could keep her team.
At the end of the day, they shook hands, sign the contract and Mercedes had a new driver for next season, which would be announced only when Nico's resignation would be announced, but Joanna was more than fine with that.
"I hope Niki is right and you're worth your money," Toto said with a teasing smile on his lips as he accompanied Joanna on her way out. It was past midnight by now and the younger Austrian was glad that she could fly home now, but Toto's words caused her to freeze.
"Niki suggested me?" She questioned her voice colder, which caused Toto to turn around to her, a little bit confused.
"Yeah. As soon as he heard the first rumors that you wanted to retire, but I'm glad you didn't in the end. I'm happy to welcome you into the Mercedes family." Trying her best to not let Toto notice that her mood had changed, she put on one of her media-trained smiles.
"And I'm glad I can be part of it. Thank you again." Joanna said before they waved at each other goodbye.
"Fucking asshole." She muttered under her breath, sitting in her car. It was him. All along, Joanna should have known. Of course, she was confused by the way the game was playing out, it never truly was Daniel or another driver. Her own father played her and he would pay for it, but Joanna had to be smart about it. Her first instinct would have been to call Niki and make sure that he knew how angry she was, but after thinking about it for a moment, Joanna knew that that would be the most stupid thing to do. There were other ways to make sure her father paid for what he did to her, Daniel, and their friendship.
The whole drive to the airport, Joanna had to force herself to pay attention to the streets rather than her disturbing thoughts. Preferably, the little child inside her would like to lock herself in her room and never come out again, but Joanna was a grown woman. She had no time for such sensitivities. Maybe once she would be safely tugged away in Max's arms, but right now she had a reputation to uphold.